


The Probability of Failure: The Youngling

by B_Radley



Series: Diana's Journeys [3]
Category: Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Love, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Remembrance, Teaching, Togruta Hunt Culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 08:46:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10659063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/B_Radley/pseuds/B_Radley
Summary: An ex-Jedi and her hunter remember another huntress and lessons from the past. The youngling unknowingly helps the elder huntress to heal.





	The Probability of Failure: The Youngling

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: In the present, takes place about two weeks after the end of _One Sword at Least._

**Approximately 4.7 Years after the Cataclysm**  
**Shili**  
**Plains of Shandai**

Ahsoka Tano crouches behind the low rocks. Her blue eyes are fixed on the gray-furred youngling near the watering hole. A silent Smirk flows across her features as she contemplates how she can get closer.

 _Hopefully there is a gray-furred old one somewhere on the other other side of the clearing,_ she thinks to herself.

 _I heard that, Runt,_ comes a warm voice in her mind and her Force sense. _Didn't seem to think I was all that decrepit this morning. Or last night. Or when you are going to climb on me after we get through here._

Just checking to see that it works, Bait, she thinks. The double meaning is not lost on either of them. 

_Besides, we have nearly five years of lost time to make up for. Plus about a year of mostly abstaining for me._ She tries not to think of her 'annual wrestling match' with a certain Naboo fixer and a quick shower with an old Senatorial friend in the months before the two of them re-connected.

 _Too late,_ comes the shared voice. _Doesn't help much when you use that as an excuse._

 _Pay attention,_ Bait, her mind says imperiously. _You need all the help you can get._

She nearly laughs out loud as she hears a small voice in her mind. _You never need an excuse, my hunt-sister._ She doesn't laugh, but a warmth that she has felt in the last two and a half months grows in her chest. 

A warmth that his ability to touch the Force this morning is partially the catalyst for. Something that has not always happened, since he had given so much of himself to help her heal.

She shakes her head to concentrate on the hunt.

She eases herself along the surface of the ground. She makes herself as small as possible as she comes up behind a row of scrub. She holds her hand out and reaches out with the Force. Her mind opens. She has the sensation of a fog clearing. Of a sharp presence opening itself to her. 

She feels panic as she slides into the _Akul's_ mind. She sends her own calm along the building link.

She feels herself starting as a scent reaches her mind from her 'prey.' A scent that is very familiar, but never experienced with this intensity.

She feels herself smile as she remembers the scent from earlier in the morning. When her nose was against the skin of the bearer. Her eyes snap open as her probe reaches the optic nerve of the youngling. They widen as she sees the figure move into his vision. Her heart races as she tries to concentrate. _Baa'je._

She speaks his name in the language of her birth in her mind. She looks at him through the youngling's eyes.

He stands straight and strong. The crooked smile that cuts through her being marks his features. Her eyes roll as she sees where he is standing.

Right in front of the beast. No more than two meters. She tries not to get distracted by his risk. She sees him hold his hand out. Another warmth begins to move into her senses. The one that she had felt earlier with the warm voice. 

A green and gold light with purple flashes, bright in its new familiarity, even brighter in its surety moves into the young beast. It meshes with hers as they read the orderly thoughts of the _Akul._

 _Hello,_ she thinks. _+Hello, huntress. I feel you both,+_ comes a steady voice. A steady voice with the boldness of youth. _+Is the other gray one your mate?+_

She feels the smirk and grin from across the way. _+No. I use him for Bait. So that I can speak with you.+_

_+Is he useful?+_

She looks down. _+Sometimes.+_

She feels laughter from someone. She cannot tell who. _+He must be. I smell both of you on each other.+_

She manages not to blush. She feels impatience in the youngling. She sends a quick burst in her mind to Covenant. She feels a sudden sensation of an _akar_ in the opposite direction of both of them in his mind.

The youngling bolts away from them. She stands as soon as he is far into the scrub. She turns to her hunter. They walk slowly to each other. 

The _akul_ turns back and glances at the two hunters standing in front of each other. One arm of each about the other's back.

The other hands on their cheeks.

~+~+~+~+~+

They walk hand-in-hand to their cave. Bryne sneaks a look at her as they walk. She is dressed much like she was in their first hunt, over a decade ago. Her homespun skirt exposes her natural camouflage for the multicolored hues of the grass and vegetation. The white markings on her forearms and upper legs break her silhouette up in the light. 

His heart squeezes at the joy that her being alive brings him. His senses are nearly overwhelmed by her raw power. He sees a slight smile move across her lips. "What, Bait?"

"Just looking, Runt. I get to."

"Guess you do, hunt-brother." she says. Her blue gaze lances his. "What is in that head of yours, hunt-sister?"

"Just thinking of the first time I met Master Ti," she says. He looks down. He stops and turns her towards him. "What brought that on?"

"Oh, the hunt. The fact that she is the one that showed us both how to touch the _akul.  
_ That she showed us the way to hunt without taking teeth when we didn't need to."

"I am glad that I did get those lessons. Anakin and I really didn't have time to work on those skills by the time I was chosen for him."

"Yeah, I know," he says, his own memories triggered. The pain flows at his thoughts of her childhood.

A childhood spent in war.

She smooths the wrinkles that have appeared in his forehead. Her fingers trace the three scars still present after she smooths them.

They sit down next to one another on the bank of the small stream. "Tell me about it, Runt. Tell me about your first meeting," he says, adding his other hand to both of hers. He caresses them slowly. Her eyes close at the warmth. He sees the Smirk come across her features.

"Well, I was actually somewhere that I wasn't supposed to be."

"Big surprise there, Runt."

**One year after the Naboo Crisis**  
**Jedi Temple**  
**Coruscant**

Shaak Ti starts awake. The faces of her dead padawans flash in her mind. They disappear as she awakens. She pulls herself up from the twisted blankets of her pallet. She walks into the fresher and looks in the mirror.

Her eyes appear their usual serene and calm violet. She walks back out into the small common area and pours herself water from the pitcher. She looks at the chronometer. She sighs. The same hour for the the past three nights.

_At least it hasn't been happening for the last two weeks of being back in the Temple._

She smiles gently as she thinks of her return with the younger knight, Obi-wan Kenobi. Of the pure joy from Plo Koon, unseen on his fearsome masked visage. Of the soft greeting of Luminara Unduli.

Of the Council watching her as she answered her question. Yoda smiling and nodding. Mace Windu with a slight smile on his face.

The equivalent of a broad grin for him.

She starts to lie on her pallet, then sighs again. She pulls on an older robe and closes it. Her lightsaber is placed in the pocket of the robe. On a whim, she pulls her headdress off of its stand and dons it; connecting the two ends under her rear lek.

She pushes past the closed door of the padawan room without hesitation.

She follows the deserted halls; only the nocturnal species and the Temple guardians are out at the fourth hour. 

At least until she reaches the refectory. The cooking staff is already up, as well as younglings assigned with their first bouts of responsibility, and padawans reflecting on the error of their ways for various transgressions.

As she comes closer to the dining hall, she senses a tiny presence behind her. She turns, but the hall is empty. Her violet eyes, the mark of a prophesied master hunter or huntress on her world, narrow. Her montrals and other senses detect movement. Minuscule movement and breathing. A smile slowly breaks on her serene features. The smile transforms into a smirk. 

"Come on out, little stalker. I know you are there."

There is a giggle. Shaak waits patiently. Finally, a bench moves slightly away from the wall of the corridor. A tiny pair of hands emerge from under the solid bench. A blue and white head with tiny lekku and montrals barely points in the skull. The owner of the hands continues out on her knees, as well. She stands.

Ti is speared by a powerful pair of wide blue eyes. Eyes that nearly fill the small face. White markings on the cheeks and brows complement the diamond shapes and parallel lines on the forehead. Orange-bronze skin, lighter than her own red flushes as she looks down at her bare feet. 

The glance down is only fleeting. She looks up into Ti's eyes. A look without fear, and the beginning of the smirk that seems to be the birthright of Togruta huntresses.

 _Especially one from a clanstead near the Lar River._ A clan known for its snark, as well as its skills in hunting.

She remembers seeing Plo's foundling when she came. She had helped him settle the tiny bundle in the crèche. 

Her own padawan had consumed her time from then on.

 _That isn't a problem now,_ she thinks with only a hint of pain.

"What are you doing out of your clan-rooms, my young huntress?" she asks. The appellation comes natural to her.

"Couldn't sleep Master," the six year old foundling says. "Have a lightsaber test tomorrow. Today," she corrects herself. Ti's eyes soften. "You know you shouldn't be up this early, and out," she chides gently. 

The eyes fall again to her toes. Her hands, with the beginnings of the camouflage markings on the back of the wrists, pull at her nightdress. "I know, Master," she whispers. 

"Ti smiles. "Not quite a master, yet, Ahsoka," she says. Her own smirk spreads across her features. "Guess I will have to figure out an appropriate punishment for you."

Impossibly, the blue orbs become even larger. "Come on, little huntress. Don't worry. I won't bite."

~+~+~+~+~+

Ti watches as the little one demolishes her 'punishment'. A second plate of eggs and spicy sausage from her homeworld. Ti sips her caf as she watches the youngling. As she finishes, she starts to wipes her mouth on her sleeve. She sees the older woman's eyes and takes up a napkin instead.

"So why couldn't you sleep, little one?"

The youngling finishes her blue milk. Ti smirks at the blue mustache over her lips. She picks up the napkin and wipes the youngling's mouth. "I have a retest soon, Mas - Knight."

The older version of the huntress raises an eyebrow. She had watched the youngling's practice. For one so young, she had an instinctual grasp of technique and of her training.

Until she got bored. Then she tended to get into trouble. She had heard Plo speak of the challenges that her crèche masters and then her youngling clan masters had faced.

Some had not faced the challenge. Or had not risen to it.

"What made you not pass the first time, Ahsoka?" She is careful in her choice of words. "I don't know. I thought that I had hit every mark. None of the remotes got through to me. Other students got hit and passed on. The proctor said that I used an incorrect parry for the form. That I used a parry from Form III when we were being tested on Form I."

Ti's eyes flash. "I think that I might attend your test today, young one. You use the swing that you need to. That you need to protect yourself. What your instincts tell you to do." She smiles, her sharp canines showing. "I think that you will pass with no problem today." Smaller canines show on the younger huntress.

She notices that Ahsoka is staring at her forehead. At her shining headdress. The headdress of a master huntress. Ahsoka is rapt. She reaches up to touch it; then remembers her manners.

Ti smiles and bends down. "You may touch it, my fierce little huntress."

As she lets her hand fall, Ahsoka smiles the carnivore's grin of her heritage again. "I will have one of those one day, Knight Ti."

"I have no doubt, little one. But remember what these teeth represent, Ahsoka. They represent mastery of yourself, more than mastery of the animal."

~+~+~+~+~+

Plo Koon walks into the refectory. He stops suddenly at the sight before him the near deserted hall.

Shaak Ti seated at a table, her chin on her chest, asleep.

A smaller version, his little 'Soka, lying next to her; against the knight's arm.

Slight smiles on both their faces.

A young human, his arms filled with dirty pots and pans, watches the three of them from the kitchen window. His green eyes watch as the Kel Dor master gently shakes the older Togruta awake.

A crooked, warm grin plays across his features.

~+~+~+~+~+

Ahsoka falls silent. Bryne smiles at her. He reaches over and kisses her gently. Her eyes are distant. He moves her chin slightly so that their eyes can lock. His smile morphs into that grin. "So, did you pass?" he asks.

"Huh?" She comes back to him. "Oh. Yeah. No problem."

He senses there is more to the story. "Come on, Runt. Don't make me drag it out of you."

She smiles wistfully. "Ti came in before the test. She started working with me one on one. She made sure that the proctor - an even bigger pain in the ass as a clan master than you were, saw her working on that exact Form III parry. Over and over again."

He takes her hand in his again. "When I tested, I used the parry. I was busy, but I could sense that Ti was standing there glaring at the proctor."

He nods, having been on the receiving end of that glare. A glare usually followed by a look of love and pride for him. "There's more," Ahsoka says. "When the proctor passed me, she went over and showed him that I should've passed the first test. That if I could pass with that parry that time, I should be awarded the pass the last time. Master Plo, who was mysteriously present as well agreed. I was able to skip the next text."

She sees his eyes track downward in pain. "She always tried to make sure that students got recognition for their accomplishments," he says quietly. "I know during your trial...." She places her fingers on his lips. "I'd say that she got it right in the end, Bryne." She looks him in the eye. "I'd say that the padawan that she brought to knighthood, the strong, compassionate man who is sitting next to me, proves that she got it right." He looks away.

She brings his lips back to hers. They breathe in each other for several moments. They break apart. He kisses her on the end of her nose. She stands and holds her hand out. He takes it and rises. 

"So what do you want to do before dinner, Bait?" she asks. He smiles. "Well, if I weren't so incredible, I would say that we can do what we have been doing before. Every other hour of the day, when my huntress gets the hunger."

"I ain't the only one, Bait. You seem to do your fair share of poking at me, morning, noon, and night."

He looks down. She pulls his chin up. "Hey." She taps him on the forehead with her knuckles. "I don't mind a minute of it. We know we are more than just joining. I don't have a single damned problem when we fall into each other, as little time as we will get to spend together." Her eyes tear briefly. "As much time as we have lost."

He kisses her again. "I know, Runt. But I would just like to hold you in the pool when we get back."

Her face is lit by a brilliant smile. "I can do that, too, Bryne."

As they turn and walk back to their hunt-stead and the simple joys, both of their minds track to an older huntress. 

Of how she shaped both of them.


End file.
